Street-smart in the w
opportunist opens a s
In part, tales of animals
compartment, makin
behaving as people and
Velcro-fastened flap.
shifting forms with them map in its huntfor su
recognize
how
much
cookies and potato ch
living things have in quickly to changing ti
common,
like varied
stone bird biologist T
faces emerging from the can untie knots and u
same totem pole. Perhaps
off with car keys and
research such as Bernd McEneaney's advice:
Heinrich's is a scientific valuables with straps
way of seeing the human
in the raven and the raven in the human.
When spring arrives, transmuting warmed
dirt into bright petals, the mutual preening
and bill touching that raven couples perform
year-round grow more intense. Soon there are
courtship displays on the wing. Both male and
female bring in twigs and pass them to each
other, working as a team to construct a stout
nest. Where I watched, it was the female that
wove the sticks into a final bowl shape and
lined the result with grass, shredded bark, and
tufts of animal fur.
Nests are generally in a tall tree or on a
sheltered cliff ledge, though I've found a
few in windmill towers and on the under
sides of bridges, and one in the trunk of an
abandoned car. They are often built atop nests
from previous years, including those of raptors
such as eagles, owls, and falcons. Raptors also
use old raven nests, and there is sharp compe
tition among these species for territories.
ilderness, a hungry
nowmobile's storage
g quick work of its
It extracted a crumpled
ch favored items as
ips. "Ravens adapt
technology "says Yellow
erry McEneaney. They
unzip zippers, making
other shiny objects.
Secure food and
and strong buckles.
ravens succumb to
After laying a clutch of
three to seven eggs, the
female raven incubates
them for three weeks
while her partner ferries
in nourishment. Six to
seven weeks pass before
the chicks can fly, and
another several months
pass before they separate
from their parents. Young
accidents and to predators
such as owls, foxes, raccoons-and other
ravens. But their main enemy during this
long rearing process is starvation, and the
amount of food their parents have been able
to cache during easier times may make the
difference between survival and death.
At his house on the outskirts of Boise,
Idaho, John Marzluff, then director of the
Sustainable Ecosystems Institute, introduced
me to a captive raven. The big male greeted me
with a full dominance display. Ruffing his
neck feathers and raising his horns, he bowed
while showing the white membranes of his
eyes and gave out a deep kow sound, followed
by a snap of the heavy beak. I imitated this
ceremony as best I could, then handed him
some grass through the wire mesh as a kind
of token offering. He merely set it aside. A
moment later, though, he began wandering
about the cage floor until he found a small
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, JANUARY 1999